Summer coming to an end: What to expect when school starts

The Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District has several projects underway thanks to bond issues approved by district voters last year. The following is a timeline of the projects, according to the district:

» High School No. 2, the working title for the new high school to be built in Severance, will be bid this fall, with construction starting in the beginning of 2018, according to the school district. Preparation work for the site, such as roads and utilities, will begin before the building construction.

» In the summer of 2018 Windsor Middle School, Tozer Primary School, Mountain View Elementary, Skyview Elementary and the administration building will be renovated.

» In the summer of 2019 Grandview Elementary, Range View Elementary, Severance Middle School and Transportation and Maintenance buildings will be renovated.

When Windsor High School Assistant Principal Kevin Copher first started working at WHS in 2001, the school had about 800 students.

Since then, the number of students at the school has nearly doubled and the high school — much of which was constructed in the 1970s — is ready for some upgrades, Copher said.

Demolition and renovations at the school are moving forward as the Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District prepares for an early start.

This summer, which has been about a week and a half shorter than in previous years, will be over for children in the district Aug. 9.

“Our construction folks are working tirelessly evenings and weekends in order to get everything ready,” Kevin Copher Windsor High School Assistant Principal

Recommended Stories For You

Before that start date, the building that previously housed the Windsor High School's cafeteria and Fireside Room is expected to be completely down and tidied up, according to Copher.

Several of the classrooms slated for renovation in an academic wing of the building also will be ready for use by the time school starts, including health, art, and world language classrooms.

"Our construction folks are working tirelessly evenings and weekends in order to get everything ready," Copher said.

While other classrooms are being renovated, classes will take place in modular buildings. Each modular will hold four classes, Copher said, and are about twice the size of the one currently on the corner of 11th and Main Streets.

They also will be air conditioned, wireless capable, fully-functional classrooms, Copher said.

Social studies classes and the classroom portion of shop classes will be the first to take place in the modular buildings, according to Copher.

The workshop portion of the shop class will take place in the agricultural sciences workshop.

"We're kind of teaming up in there to make that work," he said.

While seniors looking to take the class may be happy to know it will still happen, Copher said the school had to minimize the number of students able to take the classes to keep numbers down in the Ag shop for safety reasons.

"So we have that limited to make sure that we've got good supervision and can still provide a good educational situation for kids," he said.

Meals for students will also be a little different at the start of school, Copher said, as the cafeteria modular will not be delivered until a few weeks into the school year. So students will have what Copher called "grab and go" meals, rather than hot meals at the beginning of the year.

The shortened summer will mean a longer summer next year, with graduation scheduled for mid-May, about two weeks early, and the start of school after Labor Day in 2018.

But next year's longer summer will not have a large impact on Windsor High School, as Copher said the majority of the renovations at the high school will be completed before summer 2018 starts. The long summer will primarily benefit other schools in the district.

"They all need some love too," Copher said.

The shortened summer has presented some challenges for the high school, but nothing the staff could not overcome, Copher said.

Copher said the nostalgia that comes with changing classrooms and saying goodbye to a building that has been part of the school since the 70s has been one challenge staff has faced.

"Change is hard, even as excited as we are for the new building and the new opportunities that it can bring, the process of change isn't always fun to go through," he said.

Now, as the staff race to prepare for school to start, Copher said they are grateful for the "planning and double planning" that has led to this point.

"We're ready, and very appreciative to our community to their support," he said.

Windsor-Severance Re-4 Projects

The Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District has several projects underway thanks to bond issues approved by district voters last year. The following is a timeline of the projects, according to the district:

» High School No. 2, the working title for the new high school to be built in Severance, will be bid this fall, with construction starting in the beginning of 2018, according to the school district. Preparation work for the site, such as roads and utilities, will begin before the building construction.

» In the summer of 2018 Windsor Middle School, Tozer Primary School, Mountain View Elementary, Skyview Elementary and the administration building will be renovated.

» In the summer of 2019 Grandview Elementary, Range View Elementary, Severance Middle School and Transportation and Maintenance buildings will be renovated.